


Knives

by Judayre



Series: The Space One [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: More tags to follow, Murder Mystery, deaf!Ori, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-03-13 04:53:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3368567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Judayre/pseuds/Judayre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dwalin has to investigate a murder, because no one else will do it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was "Nwalin space murder mystery." I'm not so good at mystery, but I will do my best.
> 
> To start, have some exposition.
> 
> Also, this is a working title and I am (as I keep mentioning) bad at titles. Please send help.

Harlond was a rocky moon, the largest of the five around a blue gas giant, and the only body in the system to have enough of an atmosphere that it needed no earth shaping to live on. Thus, it was the one the Dwarves lived on. They went to the other moons, the planets, the asteroids, to mine and find raw materials, but it was Harlond they lived on, and Harlond that was their base in the system. It was barren of life, or it had been until the Dwarves colonized it. Now, the surface was covered with plant life, and it helped hold the atmosphere and strengthen it. And underneath the surface, Dwarves mined and smelted, worked and played, loved and lived out their lives. The surface was given over to those who wanted to farm and the mountains were hollowed out to make a home for a wandering population.

Dwarves used the rest of the system, but they hadn't named anything other than Harlond. When they traveled, they spoke of the coordinates of the star, or of Harlond's system. They had no need to name anything else. When Elves and Men came, they called the system Harlindon. In the habit of those with rich homeworlds that had been lived in for ages and not lost to disaster or enemies, the Elves and Men built on the other bodies in Harlindon that the Dwarves used but didn't live on. They named them and claimed them, and paid Dwarves a pittance to be servants where they had once been masters. Where the goods and the money had once come directly to the Dwarves who had done the work, now the vast majority of it went to Elves and Men, although they insisted that it went to the good of the system. It went to what they believed was the good of the system, not what Dwarves - who listened to the rock of the planets - knew to be right for the system and the Dwarves who lived there.

They said it was for the good of the Alliance, but if there was one thing Dwarves knew, it was that Men looked out for Men, Elves looked out for Elves, and since Dwarves were spread out in systems like Harlindon and the Carnen Asteroids they weren't considered. Men thought they shouldn't have a say because they didn't have a home, never mind that the Dwarves had been colonizing when Men were still on their home planet thinking that they were alone. Elves thought Dwarves had to be civilized before they could speak sense, never mind that Dwarves built and maintained more than half of the Alliance stations and ships.

And the Alliance maintained a unit in and around Harlond. It was there "to keep the peace," although Dwarves had been keeping it just fine for centuries before Men and Elves showed up. It was a mixed group, of course. Men and Elves had to make sure their interests were seen to, and it was common thought that Dwarves couldn't be trusted. "More interested in what they mined than those mining it," and there was no attempt to say it away from Dwarves in the unit. But it was the Dwarves in the unit - the ones willing to go among the citizens of Harlond - who did what peacekeeping was needed. Men and Elves patrolled the system and kept an eye out for Orcs and Goblins. Dwarves did what they always did - what they had to do - and kept their eyes and ears open and their mouths shut.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A young prisoner gets Dwalin's interest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discussion of using sex as trade.

The blue planet dominated Harlond's sky when Dwalin went on duty. He paused as he reached the exit from the mountain and took a deep breath, as he always did. He had lived on Harlond for months, but leaving the safety of underground always took a moment. Elves and Men insisted that the peacekeeper base be put on the surface, so Dwalin had this moment every day he was on duty. He had gone to the academy, and that was on the surface, but there he hadn't had Dwarf caverns all around him. The peacekeepers didn't have a base with a barracks, so they all had to find their own homes. While the Elves and Men took lodging in the surface city that had sprung up for those of their kind who had business in the system, Dwalin and the other Dwarves all chose to live underground.

He scanned the road while he breathed that last breath of mineral air. It was quiet. The gas planet reflected lights back at them, brightening the sky like planets that were closer to their central star. Dwalin had grown used to the sky of Arda when he was at school, but that was the only reason it didn't surprise him every day. He'd grown up in an asteroid belt that Men and Elves avoided, and was used to navigating by starlight long before he learned how to navigate a ship by star coordinates.

When he couldn't put it off any longer, he stepped out into the open air. He paused again to get used to the feeling of being in the open, of being vulnerable from all sides. As he did every morning, he tested the pull of gravity, stepping forward with just the right stride for the pull he felt. It was a short walk from the mountain to the center of the city where the peacekeeper base was - a few kilometers easily walked. Around him were tall buildings striving to reach away from the planet, and tall people whose eyes were often turned up as if they didn't want to be on Harlond any more than their buildings.

There was a low buzz when he entered the base. Unlike many other buildings, the peacekeepers worked at all times. There was always a crew in the base in case of trouble and a crew patrolling the city and at least the upper levels of the underground. Lights were on when Dwalin arrived, computers were at work, people bustled back and forth. It was quiet work, one shift winding down as it waited for the next to arrive, and the Elf staffing the front desk perked up on seeing him.

"Finally!" he exclaimed, practically throwing himself over the desk to greet the Dwarf. "A shift started to show, guys!" he called down the hall. There was a ragged series of cheers answering that.

Dwalin grinned and rounded the desk so he could check in and get the night report. The usual reports from around the system. The usual quiet from out of system - ships came through on a schedule and they were right in the middle of the dead time. The usual nothing from on planet. He nodded, signed the reports, and told Caladgil he only had five more minutes. He could see the Elf start thinking about dinner and drinks.

While there was still someone to watch the front for him, Dwalin did a walk through the base, checking to make sure that everything was as it should be. He had the reports, but it was always best to check it with his own eyes. He didn't expect anything different than the nothing that had been reported, and he wasn't disappointed until he got to the cells.

There was a Dwarf in one of them, curled into a ball and wedged under the bunk. He had his knees pulled to his chest and his face pressed down against them, hair swinging forward to cover his face the rest of the way. In the light that was able to get to him, hidden as he was, Dwalin saw that his braids were still bound with children's lucky ribbons - protection and prosperity, if he was reading them correctly. No wonder he was hiding. Poor child probably hadn't spent much time aboveground.

Dwalin pulled over one of the guards waiting for the A shift and gestured at the occupied cell.

"Saewynn's still writing up the report. Kormak was found dead, and that one was next to the body. Brought him in for questioning, but he wouldn't answer anything. Didn't say anything at all. Captain will be in a bit before B shift and can decide what to do with him."

"Has his family been contacted?" Dwalin sighed angrily. "He's still a child. Someone should have looked him up in the system when he was brought in and gotten in touch with his family."

"That's Caladgil's job," the other said with a shrug, not caring about something that wouldn't be his job until the next time he was on desk duty.

Dwalin sighed again. "At least get him something to eat," he said, before stomping back to the front to demand to know why Caladgil hadn't mentioned it. If it had been a Man's child of a comparable age, he wouldn't have been in the cells. But Dwarves were "too hard" for Men and Elves to read - never mind that they lived _on a moon mostly populated by Dwarves_ \- and this wasn't the first time a child had been treated like an adult criminal.

Caladgil bolted the moment he saw Dwalin, so the Dwarf wasn't able to grill him as he wanted to. He adjusted the chair so he could see over the desk and logged into the computer system so he could check outgoing calls and recent people searches. The door opened while the computer worked through ID protocols but he didn't look up, half expecting that Caladgil had remembered the recent activity and had come back to tell him.

When he finally looked up, there was a Dwarf on the other side of the desk. He was wearing the pale green jumpsuit of a pilot, his long red hair braided down tightly but elaborately.

"You have my brother." A light voice, but tight and short with worry. "I'm here to take him home."

"Bail hasn't been set," Dwalin said. "He's being held for questioning about a murder."

Golden hazel eyes widened. "He'd never!"

"He hasn't been accused," Dwalin assured, although the story he'd been told had almost laid blame.

The other must have heard something in Dwalin's voice, because his hands tightened into fists. "I'll let you fuck me if I can bring him home."

"Does that ever work?" Dwalin asked, brows rising.

"Most Elves aren't interested, but Men usually like to try out a Dwarf woman to see what it's like."

Dwalin scanned the man in front of him again. "You're not a woman."

"Not today," he was answered with a shrug. "And as far as most Men are concerned, I'm always a woman. Works out when I have to make a deal." He looked at Dwalin, and when he spoke again his voice was pleading. "At least let me see him."

Leaving the system set up to warn him when the door was about to open, Dwalin led the man - Nori was the name that came up when he was scanned for entry access - to the cells. He stood guard while opening the door and letting Nori in to see his brother. He watched as one hand was laid on the bowed head, and as the youth looked up with wide eyes. He looked away when they started signing to each other, wanting to give them at least that much privacy if they weren't comfortable speaking in front of others.

Nori was quiet on the way out. "Let me know if you change your mind," he said, scrawling his number on the pad left out for visitors. He tore the page off and pushed it into Dwalin's hands, not leaving until he saw Dwalin tuck it into a pocket.

It was a quiet morning. A few tickets came through from those patrolling for moving violations and disorderliness, but there was no one brought in. And with only one in the cells, there were no visitors. Dwalin normally liked quiet shifts, but today it gave him too much time to think about the child in the cells. He took the time to read the boy's file.

His name was Ori and he was an orphan under the guardianship of an older sibling named Dori. He had graduated early and was apprenticed as many were in a small system that was far from the major hubs of the Alliance where higher education was easy to find. Harlond was not rich enough to send its children to far off colleges. An apprenticeship was good for a young person who had graduated early. Ori was still a bit young to start working most of the jobs that were available on Harlond, or even in the system at large, and an apprenticeship meant that he would have more education and greater skills. Dwalin idly wondered if he could get up a fund to send the youth out of system for schooling, but set the idea aside as something he shouldn't worry about.

Some Dwarves had set up a small diner near the base so Dwarf peacekeepers could easily get food during their short lunch breaks. Dwalin appreciated it and ate there every day that he ate alone, and most days he ate with other Dwarves. The food was rich tasting, filling, well cooked, and cheap. It was a good meal that would last him through the afternoon, even if he was on patrol and there was activity. Dwalin had a sweet tooth and never skipped dessert, but today he bought a third sweet roll.

He asked a few more minutes from the one covering the desk for him and headed back into the base. The young Dwarf was still curled up under the bunk, his lunch tray untouched near the door. Dwalin let himself into the cell and picked up the tray to move it closer to the prisoner, who glanced up as he approached.

He didn't know much of the local sign, but offering a sweet was a universal sign of good will. Dwalin stood by while he ate, watching as he nibbled carefully at the sweet roll as if it was a rare and precious treat.

"If you would just answer questions, it would be easier to get you out of here," he said.

There was no answer, and he wasn't really expecting one. When the boy had finished his lunch, Dwalin took the tray and went back to his station.

The captain arrived half an hour before the shift finished, and Dwalin presented her with the reports from both C shift and A. She read through them, nodding periodically, signed them, and started to head back.

"Captain, the one brought in from Kormak's death is a child, and he's been in the cells all morning without any accusations. Can I call his guardian to come get him?"

She looked startled. "We'll hold him here until we can get a ship back to take him to a penal colony, of course. Something like this has to be handled quickly so no one else gets the idea that they can get away with killing the peacekeepers."

Dwalin's eyes widened. "Captain, there's no evidence that he was involved. Just because he was at the scene..."

"He _was_ at the scene, and bloody, according to the report. I don't think there's a need for an investigation for something this straightforward."

Dwalin's mind spun with the implications and he couldn't concentrate during the last half hour of his shift. When his B shift replacement came on duty, he was antsy to leave. He waited until he was under stone to fish the contact number out of his pocket and dial.

"This is Dwalin from the peacekeepers," he announced himself.

"Meet me at the Quartz Diver," came the instant answer in a voice that was familiar enough that Dwalin didn't question.

The pub was at a lower level than he typically frequented, but not so far down that he felt unsafe. It was loud with off duty workers having drinks, singing, shouting to each other, and laughing. There were signs that a fight might start soon between drunks, but it wasn't Dwalin's concern for this visit. Nori was toward the back of the room, a pair of drinks already on the table before him. Dwalin slid in next to him and took a drink so he wouldn't look out of place.

"You need to get him out of there," he said. Nori's would know who he was talking about and he couldn't explain why.

The other Dwarf nodded. "There are some rooms in the back. I'll pay and then go get him."

Dwalin stared. "I'm not setting bail. You'll have to find a way to break him out. I'm not going to fuck you for this."

"I will pay now so I don't owe you later," Nori said tightly.

"There's nothing I can hold over you!"

"I will pay now, so you can't come back and claim I owe you later," Nori ground out between clenched teeth.

It was a fight Dwalin was going to lose, and he hated to lose. But there was experience behind the words, and there was no way he could get this stranger to trust him quickly enough to get the boy out of his cell and to safety. He nodded understanding, throwing back the last of his drink before standing and following out of the pub and into the private rooms in the back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori gets things done.

Nori was no stranger to sex, or to trading sex for something he wanted. He knew what to expect. Elves, when they were willing to take a Dwarf as a lover, were hedonists, but they didn't want to do any of the work themselves - you had to work your ass off to give them pleasure. Men were selfish, take take take, like they were with anything else, and they didn't pay much attention to their partners, expecting them to take care of themselves. There had been one time.... He'd been desperate to move on from the planet he had been running a con on, and he had signed on an Orc ship. Not a Warg class fighter, but even their transport ships were bristling with armaments. Everyone had been required to show their submission to the captain. The less remembered about that the better.

Dwarves were rough with lovers, their kind built strong and expected to put up with the treatment no matter what they really wanted. They were direct and blunt, asking for what they wanted or going for it until told to stop. Dwarves were his favorite, but he always expected bruises after being with one.

Dwalin was a mystery to him. The other Dwarf was as large as one of their kind grew, well muscled and strong. His hands were big and calloused from work. Nori knew Dwalin could snap him in half if he wanted to. It was an amazing turn on. But his touches were light, tentative. He asked before everything he did, carefully, gently touching Nori's body. He couldn't tell what Dwalin would want in return, and settled for reciprocating. He traced his nails along defined muscles, rubbed the pads of his fingers across dark nipples, sat atop him and felt the flex of firm thighs beneath his own.

It was different. Different, but something he thought he might like to try out again. Perhaps some time he wasn't trading his body for his brother's freedom. He was the one paying, but Dwalin didn't make him feel like he was out of control. He asked about _everything_ , asked how Nori wanted it. And he was _so careful_. He held Nori after, pressed chest to chest, strong arms warm around him. And if he hadn't had to go for Ori, Nori would have been tempted to stay and ask for another go.

But Ori was waiting, and he was more important than anything else. Nori extricated himself and started to dress.

"Do you think you can get him?"

"Of course."

"How?"

He turned. Dark hair, dark skin, Dwalin was little more than shadows in the dim light. "Do you think I'm going to tell you that?"

He didn't wait for an answer, flipping his hair over his shoulder and leaving the peacekeeper behind. Dwalin could pay for the drinks on his way out - Nori had already done enough payment for the day. He fingered the ends of his braids as he walked, marveling at the peacekeeper yet again. Dwarves were usually more respectful of hair than Men or Elves, but to have them as firmly in place as they had started was surprising. He didn't mind having them tugged on, but that wasn't information you volunteered to someone you were paying, and the large Dwarf hadn't touched them.

Nori had spent a large part of the day making arrangements and would have been breaking Ori out soon anyway. But being told _by a peacekeeper_ that he had to do it meant he didn't have any time to waste. A few touches on his phone - touches that would look like he was just sending a message if anyone noticed him - and the cameras and alarms at the base would start glitching. Over the half hour it would take for Nori to get there, the glitches would becomes more frequent and long lasting until they just went out. He had set it up so that it would stay out for at least an hour. With luck, it would take longer to redirect and fix and they'd be too concerned with their files and their communications to think to check for one small Dwarf.

Nothing sounded when he circled behind the building to the cells. Nothing sounded when he leapt - light in the low gravity - up to the window he had noted earlier. Nothing sounded when he pushed at the window, and it easily slid open. They were still a long way from free, but he allowed himself to smile.

They would have taken Ori's phone when they brought him in. It was good in the long run - they could have traced it to him - but in the short term, it meant he couldn't call it to get attention. Luckily, no one would have thought to remove the buttons he and Dori had carefully sewn into the sleeves of every shirt Ori owned. Nori dialed a different number and there was a soft buzz as the buttons vibrated against the inside of Ori's wrists.

Ori's head came up, and Nori could see him looking around the room. His first glance was to the door, unaware of the disarray the base had to be in and assuming someone had come to visit. When the doorway was empty, his eyes slid across the room until he noticed the shadow in the light from the window. He didn't cry out, because Dori and Nori had spent a lot of time training him out of most automatic noises.

He ran across the room and leapt lightly up to grab Nori's hands. Nori slid backward out the window, pulling Ori along with him. Ori walked himself up the wall to help, because even with the low gravity he didn't want to put all the responsibility on Nori. When Ori reached the window sill, Nori let go and dropped to the ground, encouraging his brother to jump.

They didn't have time for hugs or reassurance. Even with the distraction Nori had in place, they couldn't stay where they were. He kept Ori at his side and took the roundabout route through back streets to the second entrance to the underground. Ori didn't need to be told to keep watch around them. He pressed close and his eyes darted from side to side in what could quickly turn to panic. Nori wished he had time to stop and calm him, but until they were in a place he knew was safe, he couldn't turn as much attention to his brother as he wanted to.

Nori knew the edges of Dwarf society very well. When Ori had been a baby and their mother had died, he and Dori had still been young. Dori was only just old enough to get a job, and wasn't able to make enough for all of them to live on with the wages an entry level position being filled by a young person with no experience could bring in. Nori had started running scams and picking pockets then, because they needed it - needed it enough that Dori could be angry at him for what he did but couldn't refuse to take it.

He had set up bolt holes all over the mountain in those early years. Some of them he still kept up. Others had been found, or taken over by others who needed them, or were too small for him now. The one he made for now was large enough for several Dwarves comfortably, but the entry was small enough that he was starting to have trouble getting through it.

Ori was still small enough, though, and he followed Nori with no trouble. Nori had only been home once that day, and now he produced a new phone - one that didn't have a contract on it and wasn't registered to anyone by name. He had made sure to pay it off for a month so that Ori could use it. They needed to be able to stay in touch with him, especially if he had to stay in hiding. Ori put the phone in his pocket and then threw himself in Nori's arms.

Nori held him tightly, whispering reassurances he knew his brother couldn't hear. In the end, the reassurances were for him anyway. He needed to know that Ori was here, was safe. He needed to feel the small form in his arms and pet his hair to know that he wasn't going to disappear. It had been the hardest thing he'd ever done to leave him in a jail cell, but there had been no chance that morning. If he'd tried, all that would have happened would be that they were both in jail and wouldn't have been able to see each other at all.

When he could make himself let go, he showed Ori where the food stores were and reminded him to keep the light down and not move too much. Ori couldn't hear how much noise he made, but others would hear if he made too much. He had to leave his brother alone, and that cut him deeply. He didn't want to leave Ori alone, but he had to ensure that he was safe, and he couldn't do that by staying in hiding with him.

And he had to tell Dori. He had been the one to get the call that morning, and he hadn't been home since. Dori still didn't know what had happened.

Truth told, Nori didn't really know what had happened either. Dwalin had said Ori was brought in to be questioned about a murder, but hadn't given any more information. Nori had been keeping track of all news avidly all day, but there had been no reports made. He had precious little to tell Dori, and Dori wasn't going to take it easily.

The house was lit when he got home and he had to nerve himself up to open the door.

"Have you seen Ori?" Dori called as soon as he entered.

Normally, he would shout back an answer, but this wasn't something he could call through the house. He made his way back into the kitchen to where Dori already looked scared by his lack of answer. The explanation, such as it was, didn't take long and didn't give any kind of assurance. Rather than cooking dinner, Dori ended up shaking in Nori's arms. For the second time, Nori found himself unable to comfort as he wished. All he could do was assure Dori that he would to everything he could to find out what had happened and fix it.

If he even could fix it. If it turned out that all he could do was put Ori on a ship out of the system and never find out where he went, he wouldn't need Dori to never forgive him. He'd never forgive himself.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of the escape and beginning of investigation.

No one ever volunteered for duty at the front desk. The men and women who became peacekeepers weren't scientists. They weren't people who were happy to sit behind a desk all day and coordinate the movements around the city and system. They were the kind who wanted the freedom of movement that came with patrolling, or even the freedom to get up and wander the base if they wanted. To find another member of A shift at the front desk when he finally dragged himself in in the morning shocked Dwalin to stillness.

There had been a power outage in the afternoon and the generators hadn't kicked in and the computers dumped everything (and the prisoner got out, but that wasn't important). The captain was in meetings all day with system authority, and the second was out on her tour patrolling the system. And that meant it was up to Dwalin to pore through the recovered files, checking for the important ones and the ones that could just stay lost (they didn't need Saewynn's lunch order from almost a year ago, for example).

He was left alone, except when the rest of the shift brought him gifts of sweets for all of his work. He was nominally in charge of A shift, but no one even breathed a word about the goings on around the base and the city. Either it was all remarkably quiet, or it was things they knew how to deal with. That meant he had ample time to focus on the computers, but on the other hand it meant he had ample time to focus on the computers. It was tedious work, going through the records of the last year.

He had to carefully read each entry to file it correctly and rename it. Every arrest, every citation, every personnel file, all of the reports - reports for each incident and also each shift's combined report. And that was what was kept. People often started recording letters to family during slow times or breaks. And the private files of each member of the peacekeepers had to be divided up into their personal IDs. Which he had to pause and recreate. All of them.

It was well over halfway through his shift before he was able to justify having any break at all. He would be pulling overtime for weeks recreating the system as it was supposed to be. He cursed Nori under his breath, because the timing was too perfect for the cause to have been anything but his rescue. He couldn't curse too much, though, because he'd given it his blessing. Still, as he left the building to go get lunch, he felt like there had to have been a way that didn't destroy the peacekeeper database.

There was a woman sitting at his usual table, and he'd had too hard a day to consider sitting somewhere else. He looked her over as he approached, looking for a threat, but didn't see one. She had long, dark hair, braided and piled on her head. She had a long, dark beard in ringlets with sapphires winking in it. She turned dark eyes to watch him approach, narrow and heavy lidded with dark lines framing them. And then her dark red lips turned up into a smile.

She rose to greet him, stepping out to show off. She was in a dress of pale green with angular patterns picked out in indigo thread all down it. It fit close on top to show off her narrow chest and waist, and the patterns emphasized the power of her core. It had no sleeves, baring strong arms that gleamed golden in the light. She spoke the local language, but the lilt in her voice spoke of other ports.

"Welcome, peacekeeper."

She recognized his admiration and sat closer than she had to when they sat again.

"Isn't it late for lunch?"

He snorted. "Whole base is in disarray, and guess who has to fix it all."

"You? You alone? Why you, peacekeeper?"

"Posting came with a promotion to full commander. I'm the third, and with the captain and second busy elsewhere, I'm the one in charge."

"In charge!" she exclaimed, sliding even closer so he could feel her thigh next to his own. "So you make orders and set bail?"

"Usually."

"Then why didn't you yesterday?"

The snarl came with a completely different voice, and Dwalin had already tensed and readied himself for a fight when he recognized it. "Nori?"

"Answer the damned question," the woman snarled.

"The captain had already been contacted," Dwalin hissed, not wanting anything to get out to the public more than it had to. "And since it involved _the murder of a peacekeeper_ she took responsibility herself."

The dark eyes widened, then narrowed. "If a peacekeeper was killed, why isn't the news all over the system by now? I've been watching all the news stations, and nothing has been said about it at all."

Could it be true? Dwalin didn't tend to follow the news stations himself. He knew most of the news first hand and found that the things that weren't sensationalized had already been boring the first time around. Still, Nori was right. The death of a peacekeeper - especially the murder of a peacekeeper! - was something that everyone should have known. Even if the captain didn't plan on investigating it....

"What are you doing dressed like that anyway?"

"Best way to get information. People speak to a pretty woman about things they wouldn't say to a tricky flyboy or even a con with great hair. Helps when I'm actually a woman, of course, but I've pulled it off even when I'm not."

Dwalin eyed his companion. "Are you? I can't tell when you're wearing that."

"You're sweet to ask," Nori answered, eyes crinkling at the corners with a smile. "Yes, I am."

Dwalin nodded. "Either way, you should go and change, because it isn't for you to investigate."

"My brother was arrested yesterday. My _underage_ brother. For a crime I haven't seen reported anywhere. And a peacekeeper came to tell me I had to break him out of jail. It is certainly for me to investigate, and the only way to stop me would be to arrest me too. Try explaining _that_ to your captain."

Dwalin didn't follow her as she swept out of the diner, not wanting to bring too much attention to her. With everything going on, she didn't need suspicion to fall on her because of his actions. He finished his meal in silence and walked slowly back to the base. He wanted to put on the news to see if there was really nothing about yesterday's death, but he needed to focus on the work he was doing and putting on a news feed would just be a distraction.

He worked through another three hours, hardly noting the time the shift changed and he should have gone off duty. B shift brought him in a snack and he took the chance to chat with them and stretch before bending back down to duty that was monotonous and would take ages.

Kormak's face filled his screen and thoughts of dinner and bed dropped from Dwalin's mind.

_"I haven't gotten a response to my last message, but I swear I'm not wasting your time. I've gotten more evidence. It's bigger than I thought, and I need someone sent out to clean it up. I'm not even sure who--"_

The message cut off and Dwalin quickly set up a search to find anymore of it. There was none, which was the indication that it had already been deleted and this was an old cached file. Evidence. Kormak had some kind of evidence that he had sent for assistance over? More than once, if the first line of the message could be believed. What could it be about?

He deleted the message - there was no way to know when it was from other than within the last year, and it had already been deleted once. But it stayed in his mind as he continued processing the data dump. He found himself having to read things more than once, because his mind kept straying to the dead man's message, wondering what it could be about.

He had almost moved a file to the captain's new partition when he realized the numbers in it were wrong. He frowned, but was too tired to think too much about it. A glance at the clock showed that it was almost time for C shift to come on duty and he groaned. It was more than time to go off duty if he didn't want to put in more than a full day at the base. He looked back at the screen and frowned at the report.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he made a copy of the file in his own partition before putting the original in the captain's. Then he locked the computer so that only he could get into it and stumbled home to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori gets information.

Nori cursed the whole way home. In the end, what had she learned? The corpse was a peacekeeper. She didn't know man or woman, Dwarf or Elf or Man. She didn't know where it had happened or how it had happened. She knew the captain had personally gotten involved, even though she hadn't been in when it happened - Dwalin had said bail wasn't set, and hadn't come to talk to her until mid afternoon. And she knew that Dwalin was third in command of the peacekeepers. _Third in command_ and he had come to tell her to break her brother out of jail. This was serious.

Could the corpse be the second? But no. Nori _knew_ the second, and she wasn't dirt side right now.

She scrubbed at her hair and body, watching the make up and dye swirl down the drain. Normally when she disguised herself like this it was meant to last longer, but with no leads other than Dwalin.... Without even the identity of the corpse. She knew nothing about the crime, and there was nothing to move her forward. She had expected to get something out of Dwalin, but the wait had been longer than she anticipated and she had just gotten so angry to find out he could have set bail but hadn't. He wouldn't fall for it again, and she was back to square one in trying to get her brother fully free.

She stopped stock still and started laughing so hard she nearly choked on the water from the shower. She had been focusing so hard on finding information to free her brother and hadn't had the obvious thought to ask him about what had happened.

She finished her shower and pulled her hair into one long braid that she twisted around her head. It was mostly back to its natural color, but it would be a touch too dark for a few days until the dye fully left it. She was used to adjusting her styles so that people wouldn't notice as much. She pulled on a plain jumpsuit, one of the snugger ones that she used when working mechanical jobs where things that could snag were dangerous. The entry to the hideout where Ori was was tighter than she had remembered, and she didn't want any tears to show she had been sneaking around.

She sent Ori a message after she started walking. It wouldn't do to come on him unaware. He wouldn't hear her getting close, but he would see her movement long before he would recognize her and she had trained him well enough that he would attack to defend himself before seeing who it was.

He was waiting for her, one small light on and invisible from the outside. She hugged him tightly, and sat down to ask her questions. Ori watched her hands carefully, answering in his usual thoughtful way.

 _What happened?_ she asked.

Someone had a book out of his hands. A book! A real, hard bound, hard copy book! He had to give chance to try and get it back. He hadn't cried out, though. They'd taught him better than that, and he didn't know if anyone was aware of why he was running - his attention was too focused.

And the murder scene?

He'd followed into some of the darker alleys of the underground, navigating by flashes of light from windows and glints off something reflective the one he pursued had on. He had tripped over the body before he saw it, and barely had time to recognize through touch that it was something dead before lights flooded the room and rendered him momentarily blind. By the time he could really see again, he was being pulled out of a pool of blood by the peacekeepers.

Nori looked at him and frowned. _A pool of blood?_

 _They gave me a change of clothes after they took pictures_ he answered, and it was only then that Nori recognized that the clothes he was wearing weren't his own. She was annoyed at herself for that oversight, but she had been concerned with things more important than his clothes every time she'd seen him the previous day. Then again, he had his own shirt, even if the sweater over it was new. She had been able to get his attention.

Either way, it didn't matter now. All that mattered now was getting him safe.

 _Why did they take pictures?_ Ori asked.

 _You stumbled over a murder,_ Nori answered absently, still trying to piece together what had happened. _There was a lot of blood?_

Ori nodded, and she saw how he shivered at the thought of it. _The head was gone and the body was split almost from throat to navel._

Nori's eyes popped wide. She had been expecting to hear throat slit or even a gut wound. Beheaded and body split apart was gruesome and extreme. Someone wanted to send a message. But there had been no message given! There was still no news about the death!

Ori's shivering hadn't stopped, so Nori pulled him close. She kept her hands in his line of sight so they could still talk, but leaned her head against his. His shivering slowed as he leaned against her in turn.

 _How did the peacekeepers treat you?_ Nori asked. It was a good way to get him to stop thinking about the corpse, and she did want to know how he had been treated. If it had been poorly, they would know her wrath.

She watched enough as he answered so that she could respond appropriately, but her mind spun. Ori hadn't given a name for who stole his book. He would have if he recognized him, so it had to be a stranger. But did that make it a coincidence? Had Ori just stumbled over a murder by accident? There was enough of that kind of thing in the back areas of the underground.

No, it couldn't be an accident. The one he was chasing didn't trip on the corpse, and it wasn't like being able to hear would have given him an advantage in that. Corpses didn't make noise. If he hadn't been caught with as much surprise as Ori had, he had to have known it was there.

But why lead Ori to a dead body? It could have been for him to find it and make the report so it would be found quickly. Except that the peacekeepers came almost as soon as Ori had tripped over the body. Which meant he was there to take the fall. But he was a child! Who would believe someone that young would do something so gruesome?

Someone must have, if she'd been told he had to be broken out of jail. Told by the third in command of the peacekeepers. Someone wanted Ori to take the fall. But why? What could anyone possibly get out of an innocent child's fake guilt?

And she couldn't ignore the evidence that there was probably an accomplice among the peacekeepers. Nori knew how little many Elves and Men knew about telling the age of Dwarves. She understood that they could be fooled into thinking Ori was an adult because of his beard. But there were Dwarves on the force, and they would know better. There had to be someone to make sure that nothing got in the way of Ori taking the fall.

Which meant Dwalin might be in danger for helping her.

No, of course not. No one knew about that. Why was she thinking of him, anyway?

Still, they obviously didn't have a problem with the death of a peacekeeper if they'd been in on it. He could be in danger.

She shook her head sharply and turned her attention more firmly to Ori. He deserved her attention more than a peacekeeper ever could and ever would.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwalin continues going through computer files and then sees Nori again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somewhat threatening interaction between Nori and Dwalin. Also the start of a ...somewhat questionable? sexual situation. But he could totally get away and he knows it. So it's implicit consent instead of explicit?

Kormak's voice haunted Dwalin through the night.

_I've got more evidence. It's bigger than I thought._

But evidence for what? What was "it?" The question followed Dwalin into uneasy dreams, and he woke early to groggily make his way to the base - hardly noticing, for once, when he left the shelter of the mountain - to begin his second day of file recovery.

A mug of coffee was on the desk, and several different kinds of sweets, artfully arranged - no doubt by Caladgil - almost as an offering to a hero on an impossible quest. And, eyeing the sheer amount of files the base accumulated in a year, Dwalin was inclined to agree.

He sat heavily and tried to banish his dreams as he picked up the task.

Kormak's face looked out at him from the first file he opened. The Man's dark eyes were wide and worried and he checked over his shoulder frequently. The audio picked up in the middle of a sentence. _"-ve to send someone. At least answer me--"_

It cut off again, the smallest fragment of an obviously previously deleted file. There were so many of those - few people were aware of the fact that deleted files were still cached until someone manually emptied the cache. It was helpful with the frequency that Dwalin had someone come to him crying about losing a file. But today he had cause to pause and wonder when the cache had last been deleted.

Most files had a date stamp, but it was usually at the beginning or end of a video. Dwalin had recently set the computers to display the date and time in the bottom corner of every video, although most thought it was excessive and useless. Finally, he had proof that it wasn't, because Kormak's video had a date within the past week, and a time when he should have been at home and asleep.

He wanted to delete it. It was a useless scrap of audio-visual input, and had obviously been deleted already. But he had too many questions. It was a new file, and with Kormak's death the date couldn't be thought of as coincidence. Also, it was the second Dwalin had found. Kormak had recorded these to send and had never gotten a response to at least one other message.

Knowing he had already wasted too much time on the two second video - time he needed to devote to the myriad other files in the recovery folder - he dropped the file into his partition and moved on.

He tried to keep his mind on the task and not get distracted by what he was looking through, but it was hard. Merrod was homesick for asteroids and true darkness. Saewynn's girlfriend - very long distance for three years - was breaking up with her and already expecting a baby. Ryncha was downloading games onto the base computer. Caladgil's grandchildren wanted him to transfer to be closer to them (and it was always disconcerting to be reminded of the perpetual youth of Elves - Caladgil was a grandfather?). Kivrin was using duty time to study for his advanced degree.

And there were so many invoices. People used breaks - and sometimes slow times that weren't breaks - to shop. Those who were buying books or music often didn't clear the file from the base computer when they transferred them to personal devices. Dwalin put all of those into his partition. He wasn't going to read through all of the invoices to find out who bought what - if they hadn't transferred the file they could ask him for it. In the meantime, he had a lot of new books and music.

And there were invoices for other things as well. Saewynn, in the follow up to becoming single again, had bought all new furniture. He remembered it coming almost a month previous. She had recruited him and several others to help her remove her old things - things she and her girlfriend had bought together - and replace it with the new. Caladgil wouldn't go drinking with anyone because his taste for alcohol was "so refined." He bought bottles of Dorwinion wine and had them sent to the base. Looking at the invoices - which he hadn't seen before - Dwalin noticed that Caladgil was using peacekeeper funds for his wine. He made a note to talk to him about it when he had time.

Although Caladgil wasn't the only one using base funds for himself. There were several different orders for clothes that weren't uniforms, and he'd thought Merrod's new racer was too pricy for him with what he sent to his family. Even the second was buying weapons that he knew weren't in the base's arsenal.

This was all on top of official messages, chatter with the patrol ships in system, chatter with the ships that passed through. There were all the arrest reports, citations, shift reports. There were official rebukes and commendations. 

He scanned this year's personnel review. It had come out not long after he transferred in, so it hadn't meant anything to him at the time. Now, though, he nodded over the pluses and minuses highlighted. Until he got to Kormak. The Man he had known had been thorough and fair, and not the slap dash layabout who was in the official review. He frowned but passed the file through to the official documents.

He was kept well supplied with coffee and sweets, so he didn't notice the time until his phone beeped at him. Refocusing his eyes on his phone's screen was hard, so he knew he had been at work a long time even before he saw the time. It was halfway through B shift, and that fact made him swear.

_Quartz Diver. Now._

He recognized the number. And if there was one thing he needed, it was to get out of the base and away from the computer.

 _On my way_ he responded, locking the system so no one else could get in and rising to his feet. He had to stop at the bathroom first. He made a brief stop in the gym as well, not doing a real workout but taking the chance to stretch and unkink his back and legs.

Nori was sitting at the same table in the back of the bar when Dwalin got there. The smell of alcohol was almost overwhelming after a day of nothing but sweets and coffee, but there was the rich aroma of stew under it, and Dwalin got himself a bowl of it to bring back with him. He sat, pressing up against Nori's side so that he could scan the room, and devoured the stew.

Nori watched silently, a knife playing between her fingers as she watched the room as well. She was in the dark blue of support services today, the deep color setting her hair to glowing. Dwalin couldn't help but admire it, up in its elaborate braids, coiled close around her head. His own were functional, but he would never call them beautiful like hers were.

"There's information I want from you," she said when she was sure she had his attention. She spoke softly, mouth hardly moving, and never took her eyes off the crowd of drunks around them. "I will repay in kind. And if you're lucky, I might let you fuck me again."

Dwalin's eyes darted around the room. It was loud and crowded, in no way the place for this kind of conversation.

"In the back, of course," Nori said derisively, standing and leading the way. Dwalin followed, transfixed by the swing of her hips.

Despite this, he had no trouble grabbing her wrist when she turned on him with the knife. He had no doubt if she was serious it wouldn't be so easy to stop her, but she just stood in his grip and watched him. After a moment she nodded and pulled her hand back with one tug. The knife vanished, though he couldn't say where it might have gone in the uniform she had on.

"Tell me about the murder weapon," she said, sitting at ease on the couch in the room.

It was the same couch where they had.... But no. It hadn't been a voluntary encounter. He shouldn't be perking up at the thought of repeating it. She had been paying him for something and careful as he had been that didn't make it right. Still, the light in the room was stark and made her freckles stand out on the pallor of her face. He wanted to trace them with his fingers and his lips. He wanted...

"The _murder weapon_ ," she insisted, frowning.

"There wasn't one brought in," Dwalin answered, finding that he was standing at parade rest in response to her tone. One look at the smirk on her face showed that she realized exactly what she did to him.

"A man is beheaded and gutted and there's no weapon brought in?" she asked with an incredulous snort. "And yet it's still enough to blame a child for?"

He frowned. "How do you know...?"

"My brother was _found at the scene_. How do you think I know?"

"He wouldn't answer any questions."

"He'll answer mine. And right now I'm the one asking, so you'd better be paying attention. Why hasn't the murder been publicized? It's three days now."

"Information on base is in a bit of disarray right now. You're fault, I'm sure. I can't say why it wasn't in the news the first day, though." Fighting the instinct to stay standing at attention, he sat himself next to her on the couch. "You said you'd pay in information."

"Pay for exactly nothing," she scoffed, mouth twisted in distaste. "Look up Turod Havriul. It's been a few years since he was raided and he's getting to be a dangerous force in the narrower tunnels. I think one of his stole something from my brother and led him to the corpse. Can't think why, but if he doesn't have something to do with it there's someone bigger to worry about and I need to know it."

She reached out and he let her run her long fingered hand through his beard.

There was suddenly a knife in her hand and her eyes were hard. "You're too trusting, peacekeeper," she hissed, flat of the knife pressed hard against his throat. "It will get you killed."

He reached up to take her wrist again, stopping when she tilted the knife so he could feel the edge against his throat.

"My brother is in hiding, and the longer he's there the more likely he is to lose his position and future. You will find out what Havriul is up to and stop him. Whoever your corpse is, he was stupid and got himself caught. The way you're going, you'll just be another corpse for someone to find, and then the only choice I'll have is to get my brother away from Harlond."

"I won't get myself killed," Dwalin said firmly. He didn't know what he was getting into but he hadn't gotten this far without learning some things about protecting himself.

Nori didn't seem impressed, but there was no reason she should. She hardly knew him, and he was letting her hold a knife to his throat. Her eyes roamed his face, and then she pulled back. "Strip," she ordered.

It only seemed fair to do this on her terms. He could follow her lead, let her fully have the control she hadn't been able to have the last time. It would even the score, perhaps. With no hesitation, he shrugged his jacket off and pulled his shirt over his head.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more smut, and they come to a bit more than an uneasy truce.

There were so many things that Nori needed to do. She needed to follow the leads she had on where Ori's book was and possibly figure out who took it and if they were really Havriul's. She needed to make sure Ori had enough to keep him busy and healthy in hiding. She needed to take care of Dori, who was taking the situation very badly. She needed to find some kind of temp work while she waited for the ship she was going to head out on - or maybe cancel that and find something more permanent on Harlond, considering the situation. With Ori in hiding, they couldn't all survive on just what Dori brought home.

She had so many things to do, and a peacekeeper shouldn't have been on the list. But this man had not left her thoughts, even when they should have been completely occupied with her brother. This man, suicidal enough to let her draw on him, was the best hope she had of truly getting to the bottom of this and fixing it. This man had treated Ori well in lock up, brought him treats, and warned her to get him out.

He shrugged off his jacket and pulled his shirt over his head, baring dark, hard muscle to her eyes. It wasn't deliberately slow, a tease as if he thought it would make her want him more. It wasn't fast out of fear or desire. He undressed as if it was the end of the day and he was undressing at home for nothing more interesting than a shower. It was infuriating that she didn't have more of an effect on him, but the strength obvious in the well toned arms and the ink that was hard for her to make out in the bad lighting through the dense hair of his chest more than made up for it.

Nori slid her knife back up her sleeve before taking off her own jacket and shirt. She stepped forward to put her hands on him, assert her control of the situation. He leaned back into the couch, warm and pliant under her touch. As he finished undressing, he watched her face, eyes meeting her own. The calm in them just angered her more, and she was rough in reaction.

She held him down on the couch, bit hard on his throat. When he touched her gently in all the right places, she clawed her fingers down his chest in her pleasure. She rode him hard, and the entire time she felt his hands, warm and gentle, supporting her through it. She saw how much he wanted her, knew how strong he was and how hard it would be to maintain control if he fought her. But he never did. He was hot under her, hands firm and careful on her hips and back. His eyes clouded with lust, but he kept them on her, watching her through her peak before asking permission with eyes and hands to have his own.

She hadn't even realized he was holding back for her. For a split second, she considered denying him. She thought about getting off him and leaving him there, naked and wanting. She imagined him finishing himself in the back room of a bar where everyone would know what had happened. Only for a second, and then she did everything she could to destroy the tightly held control that had allowed him to hold back.

And then, still panting, muscles protesting any movement at all, she cleaned herself up and got dressed. There was nothing more to do here, and she had so many responsibilities.

"Nori." The deep voice stopped her halfway to the door, and she turned to look again at the man, comfortable enough in himself that he didn't seem to mind her stares.

"I can give you no promises," he said when he had her attention. "I can't guarantee anything, but I will do all in my power. I will help you and your brother however I can."

There was silence then. He had said his piece. She could respond or leave as she wanted and it would be fine.

Nori was used to having to make split second decisions. She trusted her instincts - had to, because if she questioned herself she might end up dead. She knew it was dangerous to trust peacekeepers, and her head said she should walk away.

She crawled back onto the couch and into the welcoming circle of Dwalin's arms. The tension of the last few days broke and she wept silently against his chest while he held her. She'd been working so hard, with no one to help her, trying to keep Ori safe and Dori calm, trying to figure out what was happening and protect them all. She hadn't had any time to feel what had happened because she needed to be the strong one.

Dwalin stroked her hair and held her close, wrapping around her and making her feel safe. She looked up but there was no judgment in his face.

"The peacekeepers," she said finally, and he stilled at her voice, "have been a corrupt system for years. Most of them aren't bad, but you can't always tell the ones who aren't until you're in trouble. Your corpse must have been on the take and crossed the wrong person. Or he was an example to one."

Dwalin's face was grim. "Or he was investigating the corruption and got too close."

Nori pulled back. "Don't end up like him," she ordered.

He leaned up to kiss her brow. "I won't."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwalin starts to put things together.

They had left separately. Of course they had. In a place like that, leaving together would have started tongues wagging, and there was a reason they had met in a bar in an area where people didn't often ask questions. Although they'd met there twice, within a few days. Dwalin tried to think of where else they could meet unremarked.

In the meantime, he had another shift of slogging through computer files. Nothing seemed to be from Kormak, which meant he was at a dead end in looking through the dead Man's files. But knowing that he might have been investigating corruption made him look at everything with new eyes. There had been the yearly review report that gave him such bad ratings. Someone high up must be involved.

Halfway through his shift he took a break. After the past few days, he made sure to set himself an alarm so he wouldn't spend too many hours hunched over a screen. He got lunch and took some time to stretch and train in the gym before going back. And then, secure in the knowledge that he knew the most about computers on the base and no one would be able to trace him, he looked up Turod Havriul.

There were only two records. He had been arrested more than ten years back on charges of smuggling and had been shipped to a penal colony.

That sounded wrong with what Nori had told him, and he brought up the actual reports to read. They were far too old to see if anything had been changed, but he noticed immediately that the pictures were completely different men. Even Men who claimed they couldn't tell the difference between one Dwarf and another should have been able to tell the difference between a blond and a redhead.

If the one who had been arrested was Havriul, than the one who was sent off world was not. How could that trade have been made without any acknowledgement? He checked to see if it had been different officers processing him, but it hadn't been. It hadn't been, and Dwalin recognized the signature.

The one who had arrested and processed Havriul had been the newly promoted captain. Who was still the captain.

Dwalin shut the files instantly and went through the motions necessary to cover his tracks. He went back to his work, mind spinning with implications. The captain had to be working with Havriul. The corruption Nori had mentioned went much deeper than any would think. Havriul hadn't been raided in years and was a strong force in the criminal section of Harlond. Kormak must have stumbled on it somehow and they needed to quiet him.

Was that why his messages were deleted? Had the captain somehow caught them before they went out to headquarters and kept them out of the queue? Perhaps, and that was a frightening thought. If there was some kind of alarm on the Havriul files, Dwalin would find himself the next one targeted.

But no. He was the best with computers - it wasn't false pride to say so. There was nothing on either file or the folder they were in to alert anyone. He searched the database for alerts, making sure that there wasn't a trap just in looking for the name. There wasn't, the only alert that pinged back was for the name "Nori Korul."

It could mean anything, but it almost made him shiver. He disabled the alert and it was only willpower that kept him from opening the files right then. He had work to do.

There was so much he had copied into his own partition now that he was thinking about a conspiracy headed by the captain. Who else would be in on it? The second, probably. They'd come in almost together and were the best of friends. He'd hardly been on Harlond for a full day before understanding that what one said the other backed up. It was beyond belief that the captain would be in on something that the second wasn't also in on.

And why hadn't they approached him yet? Because he was a Dwarf? Because he was new? Because he was a man? Because of his record of honesty? There was no way to know until he had rooted out the rot.

By the end of the day Dwalin sincerely hoped the captain had forgotten the things that were on her partition or had thought them thoroughly lost. He would likely be a target even without the knowledge he had otherwise. He didn't wonder how Kormak had found his evidence - it was everywhere. The captain seemed to rely on her power and her password to keep things secret. She had correspondence and records that were so clearly incriminating that it took his breath away. He made sure to put them in his own partition, hoping that not appearing in her own would make the captain think they were gone forever and protect him.

At the end of his shift, he downloaded Nori's files to his phone to read when safely home. Not that he had time for them - with an actual corrupt captain and a con with too much power, he needed to do his job and take it down more than he needed to read about Nori, no matter how interested in her he was.

But even that was a problem. The captain was involved, and probably the second as well. There was an underworld component that he couldn't gauge. He didn't know who else on the force was involved. He couldn't do this on his own, but he couldn't send a message. And he couldn't just leave to get back up.

Another person fell into step next to him, and it took only a glance for him to recognize Nori, dressed and made up fancy like she had been when she was disguised, but not disguised like she had been then. Her red hair was curled and rolled and pinned up, her freckles had all been covered with powder that made her look paler and softer than usual. He could see the compact strength of her body, the strength of her arms, the hint of a tattoo circling her upper arm. He wanted to stare, but knew that he couldn’t when they were in public.

She glanced at him and he caught her eye and nodded. Without a moment’s hesitation, she took his arm and leaned into him as though they were together. He kept in step with her as she turned to lead him to an aboveground hotel where they got a room together. He couldn’t help feeling a stab of excitement at where they were, but there were more important things to do.

“Can you get off world without anyone thinking something’s wrong?” he asked as soon as he had finished a quick check for bugs. She pursed her lips and raised a brow at him, so he continued. “I need back up. My cousin is a ship’s captain and he’s close by. It should only be a few weeks to get to him. But I can’t go myself. Can you get him for me?”

“And you’ll trust me to do this and not double cross you?” Nori asked incredulously.

He thought about her fierce concern for her brother. He thought about the warm weight of her in his arms. He thought about how she had given him information so he wouldn’t meet the same fate as Kormak. He thought about how she had held a knife to his throat and not drawn any blood, despite how angry she was.

“I trust you,” he answered firmly.

He saw wonder in her eyes, just for a moment before she hid it. “I can’t do it. I have Ori to take care of.”

“I’ll do it,” he offered.

“You can’t,” she answered. “You’d never fit into his hiding place. I almost don’t fit anymore.”

But it wasn’t a blank negative, and it was a sign that she might trust him as well. He thought for a moment and spoke carefully. “There’s been no word let out about the murder. No one is looking for him, at least not actively. If he mostly stays inside, he could stay in my apartment. I’ll make sure he’s fed, and he can use my console and account to get books or take classes.”

Nori’s eyes narrowed and she looked at him very closely for a long time. Finally, she nodded, although she didn’t look certain. “I’m scheduled to go out on a ship in two days. We don’t have a destination, so I can get them to bring me at least close to your cousin. How will I get _him_ to trust me?”

Relief flooded Dwalin. “I’ll give you a message for him. He’ll know you’re from me and that I trust you.”

Dwalin knew that if he could read the uncertainty in her eyes she had to be very concerned. He reached out - slowly, so she could see it coming and move away if she wanted - and put his hands on her shoulders. “I will take good care of him,” he promised.

She looked up at him, and he could tell when she relaxed and see how she fought it. “If you don’t, I will have your balls,” she answered.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori goes for help.

Müsta Helmí was a small ship. She was more maneuverable than her age would imply, and _always_ in better shape than she looked. She could be run with a crew of five, which was less than a ship of comparable size in the fleet. She did some salvage, which was legal, and some smuggling, which was _not_.

Her weapons were top grade. They had to be. The smuggling could get them chased by any honest ship, and even the salvage could get people's backs up. And they were smuggling without paying Havriul his cut.

When she wasn't much more than thirty, Nori had decided that she was never getting involved with organized crime groups. They thought they owned you and it was more dangerous than it was worth to belong to them. Mykka, who owned Müsta Helmí, agreed with her. The ship owed allegiance to no one. Which was dangerous as well, but at least it was dangerous and _free_.

Nori was chiefly the pilot of the ship, moving them through dark spots in sensor sweeps and around the backs of asteroids. Heading out of the system, there was always a lot of work to be done in avoiding detection, and that kept Nori busy for several days until they were safely clear.

At that point, everything that had happened crashed back into conscious thought from where she had set it. She had left her brother alone with a peacekeeper. She trusted a peacekeeper to take care of him. She trusted a _peacekeeper_ enough that she was out in search of a fleet ship, voluntarily ready to give herself up to authorities.

What had she been thinking?

The next few days were deep in research to learn everything she could about this cousin of Dwalin's she was trusting. The Üski was captained by Thorin Thraínul. He was called Oakenshield after a training exercise from his academy days. He had hidden his entire training group under a grove of oaks, using them to block the signals of their opponents so successfully that he didn't lose even one man in the ambush they mounted. He was forthright - some said he gave praise too freely, while others cursed him for being tight lipped and severe.

He was also king of the Longbeards. A king, content to be a ship's captain! He had been passed over for higher ranks, had _turned down_ higher ranks. A king!

Her own king, she remembered moments later. How did one address one's king?

More to the point, how did one convince one's smuggler associates to bring a ship that was only slightly legal to interact with a fleet captain who was also one of the seven Dwarf kings?

She kept the thought in the back of her mind as they continued on their way, stopping at hidden trading posts and turning aside for likely looking debris clouds. When it finally came to be do or die time she still hadn't figured it out. She and Mykka were the only ones on the bridge, and finally she just stood and turned to him.

"I have to leave you here."

He looked up from his own station. "Why?"

She took a deep breath. "If I don't leave now, I'll never intercept the Üski."

His eyes narrowed. "Why do you need to intercept a fleet ship?"

"It's about my brother," she said plainly. Mykka had never played her false. "And about Harlond. I need to speak to the Üski's captain."

His looked at her for a long time, brows down. She met his stare calmly, not betraying how easily she could have knives in her hands if needed. He looked down, still thinking, and then nodded.

"Change course to intercept," he said. As she stared, he toggled the communication switch - one they rarely used in open space - and started broadcasting to the fleet ship.

In far too short a time she found herself on a fleet vessel, in a small office, staring across a desk at the captain of the ship, the king of the Longbeards. He was dark, like Dwalin was, with long hair braided neatly, and a short beard like one in mourning.

"Captain," she started, trying to gather her thoughts, then "your majesty."

"Captain on ship," he said, voice deep and calming.

She shook her head. " _Your majesty_. This is about the safety of Dwarves. This is about Harlond, one of our new homes. I bring you a message."

She held out the disc Dwalin's message was on and watched as Thorin slid it into the reader. She heard the voice, somehow familiar and comforting despite the shortness of their interaction and weeks apart.

_"Cousin. The peacekeepers are on the take and I don't know how deep the rot goes. I can trust no one on the force until I've been thoroughly through the records, and I don't have time for that. This needs to be cleaned up soon. There's already been one death and an innocent blamed. You can trust what Nori tells you. Come as soon as you can."_

There was silence as the message ended and Nori held her breath. Finally Thorin looked up, eyes hard and commanding. "Tell me the situation," he ordered.

She breathed.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> meanwhile, back on Harlond....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look! A chapter! My ability to write these last few months has been supremely low. I'm trying to work through that. Encouragement is loved.

It had taken some time to get used to having another person in his apartment. Dwalin had grown up in a place where he and his brother shared a room. He had had a roommate at the academy. But he'd been living on his own since then. Now that he was used to it, he had to relearn living with another person.

Ori was a good lad, which helped. Though he couldn't hear or speak - no wonder he had answered no questions! - he was polite and wanted to be helpful. Dwalin often came home to find dinner made already. It hadn't taken him long to start regularly bringing home sweets, and Ori still ate them with wide eyed delight after almost two months together.

The apartment was only meant for a single person, though. There wasn't much space for two people to move around each other. In the end, they ended up sharing the bed. Dwalin almost decided against it, sure that Nori would assume the worst, but he needed the sleep and he couldn't get it on the couch, and he wouldn't put the lad on it either. Ori was still young and liked to cuddle in as if Dwalin were another older brother.

It only took a few days for Dwalin to see how Ori read the books that he had, devouring a new one each day. It corroborated his file saying how intelligent he was. Dwalin sat the lad at the computer, fetched up the list of classes he had access to, and said to choose three. Ori looked covetously at the entire list and spent several hours reading about all of them before bringing his choices to Dwalin.

An art course - mostly figure drawing, with color theory as well. A literature course - the twelve books on the syllabus evenly divided between Elves, Men, Dwarves, and Hobbits. An interstellar law course - detailing planet versus Alliance and which had precedence where, both civil and criminal law.

Dwalin loved the variety and quickly put his credits to the classes. When he came home from work - and he was more sure than before to not stay late with the computers - he got to see what Ori had done during the day. He read the books as well - and the poetry and short stories - and they discussed them, Dwalin's grasp of the local Iglishmêk growing stronger every day.

It was nice. A very nice break from the stress of work. It had taken a few weeks to get all the files in order, but he had done it. And by the time it was done he had plenty of evidence against the captain. She kept correspondence with Havriul! And there were notes on some of her doctored reports as well. The sheer amount of it kept Dwalin looking over his shoulder constantly.

But there was nothing he could do until Thorin got there. _If_ he came. There was nothing to guarantee that he would come, or even that he would believe. A few of the base he was certain were clean. Caladgil, for example, and Saewynn. But many he wasn't sure on. Could he trust Merrod? Ryncha? He would more time to figure everyone out, and he couldn't make a move with that uncertainty.

And a move certainly needed to be made, and soon. Some of the correspondence alluded to it being "almost time," although they never said for what. But he was jumpy with anticipation. Havriul had gotten weapons and supplies from the captain and second, and from the little Dwalin could find out, it seemed like everyone on Harlond who was involved in any kind of shady activity paid him a cut.

Except for Nori. And a few others, but they had pegged Nori as the ring leader of those not involved. No wonder Ori had been chosen to take the fall for Kormak's death. Part of him hoped that Nori had taken the chance to get well out of the system, but he knew that Nori would never abandon Dori and Ori. He knew because of how Ori trusted his older sibling.

It was not his shift when the Üski finally got into the system. He was asleep when Thorin asked leave to enter orbit and restock their supplies after an unexpected delay. He woke to the sound of his phone and answered blearily.

"Do you have time, cousin?"

Dwalin was suddenly awake. "Yes. Come now. Is..? Nori knows the way." Nori had only been there once, but he had faith that the other Dwarf remembered the way.

There was a brief pause. "Expect us in half an hour." Thorin didn't give a farewell before terminating the call.

Ori woke and signed a tired question with his eyes half open. Dwalin was a little sorry to have woken him, but when he signed Nori's name, the youth's eyes widened and his entire face brightened. They dressed quickly and Dwalin made coffee the way he remembered Thorin liking it.

When the knock came, it was in their old "ready for mischief" pattern and Dwalin had no fear in opening the door and welcoming his cousin in.


End file.
